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The San Diego Padres are celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the 1998 National League Champions by wearing special throwback uniforms tonight against the St. Louis Cardinals. Opting for their white home set from the period, the pinstriped uniforms feature the […]

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Granted, some of the 1991-2003 tweaks improved the identity (shadow didn’t match main script color, block standard numbers, etc.), but it still wasn’t a good look. I know that there are people who like it, but it’s not my taste.

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Granted, some of the 1991-2003 tweaks improved the identity (shadow didn’t match main script color, block standard numbers, etc.), but it still wasn’t a good look. I know that there are people who like it, but it’s not my taste.

I think those tweaks were pretty significant. I'd like to see a mockup of the brown version with the orange replaced by white and the shadow in orange. Also maybe a version where the outline is yellow and the shadow orange.

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Granted, some of the 1991-2003 tweaks improved the identity (shadow didn’t match main script color, block standard numbers, etc.), but it still wasn’t a good look. I know that there are people who like it, but it’s not my taste.

BBTV's idea was exactly what I had in mind. But for my two cents, this is still the best the Padres have ever looked. I honestly don't know how anyone could not like it, aside from just not liking brown.

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BBTV's idea was exactly what I had in mind. But for my two cents, this is still the best the Padres have ever looked. I honestly don't know how anyone could not like it, aside from just not liking brown.

I like it, too. But the best they've ever looked? Not with this gem tucked away in their history;

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I like it, too. But the best they've ever looked? Not with this gem tucked away in their history;

Dump that road cap, and we'd have something fab. Heck, just get the creative team that did the 2012 Blue Jays redesign to go over the '69-'71 set (with a bit of the 1974 "Padres" cursive script), and you'd have perfection in brown/yellow. A font with a bit of a Gasslamp Quarter/Mission San Diego de Alcalá look would be perfect.

4 hours ago, Ark said:

Such a nice uniform.

"Nice" is too strong. I'd say "passable" or "messy" would be more appropriate words. Let's list the problems out step-by-step.

1. That wordmark, while distinctive, looks stuck in the late-1980s/early-1990s. The lack of a matching "San Diego" hurt the overall cohesiveness of the set. I'm sure @Gothamite can chime in on the "Padres" wordmark's structural problems better than I could.

2. Drop shadow is a difficult element to pull off for any team, and while the Padres attempted to execute it with the different-colored cap logo letters and the wordmarks, it didn't really work. It just made the look more cluttered than it needed to be. The road uniform and navy alternate looked especially terrible due to this practice.

3. Pinstripes came off as "trying to hard" for the Padres. I get that it was a reaction to the oddball looks of the later brown/yellow and brown/yellow/orange years, but it just never felt "right" for them. It's also added clutter on the home uniform. The drop shadow on a non-pinstriped uniform would have been a bit better.

4. Switching to navy was another step in the wrong direction for the team. In a vacuum, it was fine. In context with their identity's history, it was a poor decision that helped lead the team to their current bland outfits.

I get why people like them, and I acknowledge that this identity overlapped with one of the team's few stretches of sustained success. However, it's not a good look. It pales in comparison to the '69-'71 uniforms or any potential modernization of that look. It's the '90s equivalent of the Astros' "South Texas Railmen" uniforms, trying too hard to be "classy" while adding unfortunate modern touches.

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4. Switching to navy was another step in the wrong direction for the team. In a vacuum, it was fine. In context with their identity's history, it was a poor decision that helped lead the team to their current bland outfits.

If anything, context is in last night's jersey's favor. It's what the best team in the franchise's history wore, as well as the only jersey the team's two statue-worthy players shared. It could use an updating, and a wordmark that looks less like Superman's, but the team could probably get most fans off their back if they went back to something like this.

About the game, it's too bad the Cardinals didn't wear their navy hats to complete the throwback theme.

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Another thing about the brown and what it means to the Padres' team history: they had six distinct brown looks (with four distinct wordmarks) in 22 years and four in the first 10. That hardly seems like an identitiy.

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I remember growing up and going to lots of Padres games. To me the brown pinstripe uniforms represent losing. Now I know the Padres have never been anything to write home about, but I will always remember the magic of the '98 Padres and the orange and navy uniforms. I think these should be in their rotation as a throwback. Honestly I get the desire to have them be a predominately brown team, but I agree with Dave Winfield when he called the brown and yellow the pee and poop colored uniforms. I honestly think the PCL Padres colors are fantstic, but the brown could work as long as there's no too much kind of like the '71 uniforms pictured above. I think either go brown and include some sort of mission imagery, or go San Diego with two different shades of blue and sand with some wave type imagery. They do need to come up with a new script no matter what they do.

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Another thing about the brown and what it means to the Padres' team history: they had six distinct brown looks (with four distinct wordmarks) in 22 years and four in the first 10. That hardly seems like an identitiy.

They're still the only active MLB franchise to ever use brown in their history. It's a color they still "own" after all these years.